Ballet’s most famous ghost is getting to be a regular visitor to our part of the world.

Last fall we got the Kirov’s Old World version of “Giselle,” with the incomparable Diana Vishneva as the girl whose love extends beyond the grave.

At the Performing Arts Center this week, American Ballet Theatre is rolling out its veterans and talented rising stars for the weeklong residency of this Romantic-era warhorse. Even if you’re tired of the story, it’s a golden opportunity to evaluate how the company looks as it weathers a recession that its artistic director, Kevin McKenzie, told me is taking its toll on ABT, just like every other arts group in America.

Tuesday’s opening-night cast was a showcase for veteran ABT talent. Julie Kent starred as Giselle, an innocent village girl. Jose Manuel Carreño played her less-than-worthy lover, Count Albrecht, a prince whose decision to sow a few wild pre-nuptial oats disguised as a country boy proves fatal for poor Giselle.

I peeked (sorry, that’s my job), and both these dancers are around 40. Dancing young roles at that age isn’t unprecedented – Margot Fonteyn performed Giselle well into her 40s, and Nureyev refused to acknowledge Father Time in his portrayals. The only reason it’s worth mentioning is that both dancers’ interpretations were remarkably youthful at Tuesday’s performance.

Kent’s Giselle is dreamlike. She has always been adept at evoking otherworldliness in her dancing – it has something to do with her waiflike beauty, her always supple arms and her gravity-defying arabesque. Those are qualities that are perfectly matched to the role.

And unlike so many otherwise gifted ballet dancers, Kent is an actress of considerable skill. Though her requisite solo and pas de deux virtuosity was enjoyable, she was at her best in moments of deep and subtle emotion.

When Giselle discovers that her beloved is actually a two-timing prince with a haughty fiancée, Kent turns her gradual transformation from happy teen to broken-hearted wretch and, finally, lifeless body into a symphony of small yet telling gestures.

Carreño was almost as impressive. His Albrecht has some of the haughtiness that Nureyev and Vladimir Malakhov brought to the role, but he’s humane, too. Carreño’s Albrecht exhibits genuine shame over his duplicity, and his death dance with the vengeful Wilis in the second act contains more than a tinge of edge-of-sanity desperation.

A third element makes these performances work: Kent and Carreño make a perfect pair. He’s only a bit taller than she is, and they exude the same brand of contained yet forceful emotionalism.

If their interpretations sound like your cup of tea, you’re in luck: Kent and Carreño will play the roles again on Thursday, Nov. 5.

Supporting roles were also enjoyable on Tuesday, though the nitpickers would have found cause to complain.

Gennadi Saveliev was occasionally over the top as Hilarion, the village huntsman who’s also wildly in love with Giselle. Marius Petipa’s choreograqphy is full of mime (the seamless integration of mimed action and dance is one of “Giselle’s” greatest triumphs) but it can’t be played too broadly. Saveliev steps over the line, especially during Giselle’s death scene.

As Myrta, ice-cold queen of the Wilis, Veronika Part certainly looks right; you have to believe that this character is a spirit who exists to kill men who’ve wronged their betrothed. But Part’s performance was marred by some physical shortcomings, mainly stiffness in the upper body and awkward arms that interfered with the fluidity of the choreography.

The corps has looked better. There was frequent disagreement in the second act concerning arm placement, wrist angles, degree of shoulder tilt and other details of posing. And Jennifer Tipton’s lighting left a few unlucky upstage Wilis in the dark from time to time (undoubtedly an opening-night problem that will be fixed).

This is the version of “Giselle” that has been in ABT’s repertoire since 1987, with scenery by Gianni Quaranta and costumes by Anna Anni. It’s rich looking but not overwhelming. Like most scenic designers, Quaranta was clearly more inspired by the second act of the ballet, which takes place in a spooky graveyard, than the first, set in a ho-hum village square.

If you’re thinking of going, be sure to check the casting as it changes for each performance. I’ve circled the Saturday matinee, not for the leads but for Gillian Murphy, who is making her only appearance as Myrta. The word through the grapevine is she’s magnificent. That’s enough to get me over to the Center again.

Paul D. Hodgins is a freelancer who previously worked at the Orange County Register since 1993. He spent more than two decades as the Register’s theater critic, and for eight years he wrote about dance as well. Hodgins has also written for American Theatre, Variety, The Sondheim Review and Backstage West. Hodgins has also been active as an educator and scholar. He was the music director of the dance department at The University of California, Irvine from 1985-92 and served in similar positions at Eastern Michigan University, Vancouver’s Simon Fraser University and the Banff Centre for the Arts. His book about relationships between music and choreography, 'Music, Movement and Metaphor,' was published in 1992. Since 2001, Hodgins has taught arts and entertainment journalism at California State University, Fullerton. Hodgins holds a doctorate in musical composition and theory from the University of Southern California. He lives in Huntington Beach.